This year I was planning to finally read Ulysses in its entirety in time to celebrate on 16 June. I even took it off my bookcase a couple of weeks ago and put it on my coffee table so it was staring at me. But I didn’t. I didn’t even start. So, other than the first 50 pages or so, and parts of Molly Bloom’s monologue, it remains one of those ‘cultural landmark’ books I haven’t read.
Though I’ve been a lifelong reader, there are plenty more. I’ve never finished the Lord of the Rings trilogy, despite a couple of attempts. Two Towers is just so bone-achingly dull I can’t get through it. I’ve never read Tolstoy, or Hemmingway, or Proust (though I have grand plans to tackle all three at some point in the next few years). I haven’t read Moby Dick, or Middlemarch. I plan to read those too.
When it comes to pop-culture, cultural capital works in two ways: you can obtain cultural capital by engaging with particular cultural icons; and you can obtain it by avoiding others. A case in point: I have seen every episode of Buffy, and I have never read 50 Shades of Grey (I read the first couple of pages out of curiosity and found it so appallingly written I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand it). These two facts give me cultural capital in some circles, though I’m sure not in others. More problematically for some people I know, I haven’t seen a single episode of The Sopranos, but I have read The Da Vinci Code. Twice.
(I am trying to avoid justifying myself in this post – ‘but I’ve read x, y, z so I’ve read lots, honest! Including some really impressive stuff!’ – but I have to explain the Dan Brown thing. My Mum gave it to me when it first came out, before anyone had ever heard of it. She had no idea what it was and nor did I. So I whipped through it quickly, finding it a ludicrous and badly written page-turner, and forgot about it. Then I started seeing people reading it everywhere and was perplexed. Had I missed something? Why was this bog-standard book suddenly so popular? I pulled my copy off the shelf and rattled through it again in a couple of hours. I was still perplexed.)
With ‘literature’ (I know that’s a problematic term) cultural capital works differently. It’s all about what you’ve read, and about not mentioning what you haven’t read. Worse still, it can be about pretending you’ve finished something you haven’t, which I certainly did on occasion when I was younger. Everyone likes to seem better read than they are.
These days I’m more honest. Yes, there are piles of books – many of them considered great – I’ve never read. I would like to get through some of them; others I likely never will. And while there’s definitely an element of cultural capital involved, the older I get the less I think about what I ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ read. I just want to read books that are well written, books that are moving or inspiring, scary or thought provoking, books that revel in language, books that are fun, and books that just tell a good story well.
Does Ulysses fit any of those categories for me? Maybe one day I’ll find out. Happy Bloomsday.
June 16, 2014 at 8:50 pm
I was actually spying on a really interesting conversation on twitter today between Jennifer Mills and sundry about massive books like Ulysses and Moby Dick, and how it works as a formal element, as a gendered thing (male authors write very long, very important books that you couldn’t possibly appreciate), the physicality, even as a symbol of class (I have this much idle time to dedicate to a single work) etc. I read Moby Dick a couple of years ago while unemployed (really the only way to read it), and the scale is so much a part of it, and that sense of inertia and boredom. So little happens, but condensed it would have none of that trudging inevitability that makes it unique. But it does make it very difficult to read on a tram.
(I’m sure you’re aware of this but just in case http://www.mobydickbigread.com/)
June 16, 2014 at 9:18 pm
I was thinking about the gendered thing, but – though I agree in principle – didn’t want to get into the whole ‘deconstruct the canon’ aspect, despite picking mainly white-male-authored doorstops as my examples (except for Middlemarch, which is a white-female-authored doorstop). And, I would argue, authors like Austen, the Brontes, Shelley, Wharton, Woolf et al. are also loaded with cultural capital. Whether it’s comparable or distinct is a debate for another place!
Thanks for the link to Moby Dick too – I hadn’t seen it before, and as I walk to work (rather than catching a tram) perhaps it’s my only option in the near future. I’ve always thought when I finally decide to launch myself into Proust I will need to take annual leave. Or long service leave.
June 17, 2014 at 8:31 am
I got to chapter 5 or so of Ulysses at uni and gave up. I have sort of read LOTR trilogy but it involved a LOT of skimming over dull sections. Never watched an episode of Buffy. Da Vinci Code read only once (thankfully). I can’t remember if I’ve actually read Moby Dick but I have read Middlemarch more than once. The book that really defeated me as A Suitable Boy. Owned it for 20 years and finally gave it to charity as I knew I was never going to read it.
June 17, 2014 at 11:05 am
I’ve considered A Suitable Boy a few times, but have never taken the plunge.
June 17, 2014 at 1:04 pm
Oh darn, you’re reminded me that I’ve got Middlemarch and Moby Dick on my to-read list too! I’ve tried Ulysses a couple of times previously but have given up; however, the reviews of Eimear McBride’s novel A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing have been making me think it’s time to try Ulysses again (as the excerpts of her book I really like, and the comparison has been made). The other book that everyone tells me I have to read but still haven’t David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest – I’m sure I will get around to it one day!
June 17, 2014 at 3:01 pm
Infinite Jest is on my ‘to read’ list too. One day.
June 17, 2014 at 3:26 pm
It makes me feel better that I am not the only one with Ulysses, Moby Dick and Middlemarch in my giant ‘to-read’ pile. I bought Ulysses quite a few years ago, and like you have picked it up a few times, but have never quite make it further than about Chapter 2…I even tried to bring it on holidays once thinking I’d have plenty of time to read it (instead my bag was a whole lot heavier than needed).
I have to say I did almost fall off my chair when you said you haven’t made it through LOTR but, I touched on this a little bit in a post yesterday, I feel like ‘classics’ will always be passionately debated as they are so subjective. I hated with a passion “Catcher in the Rhye” and “Catch-22” but so many people love those books. It really does come down to taste, no matter what the “higher-ups” (whoever they may be) decide.
June 17, 2014 at 6:42 pm
I knew I wouldn’t be alone 🙂
LOTR is definitely one of those classics people have strong opinions about! Can you send me a link to your post from yesterday? Would love to check it out.
June 18, 2014 at 1:23 pm
Sure thing: http://librararianville.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/most-over-rated-book-blogjune/
It is more just a mini rant within a post about a book I personally think is over-rated 😉
June 18, 2014 at 1:30 pm
Thanks. Another confession: Catcher in the Rye is one of those classics I’ve never read!
June 17, 2014 at 11:30 pm
The trick is to listen to an audio version of Ulysses first or attend a reading group. Much easier to hack after that. And don’t get caught up on all the references, you can tackle them later if you want. Just read it through and try follow the story. Or you can always start with our “Romping through Dublin – Ulysses the Manual” – Ulysses in 25 minutes, easy and fun, with illustrations 😉
June 18, 2014 at 10:20 am
I think that’s the other problem – I have the ‘annotated Ulysses’, and remember getting caught up in the annotations. Next time I tackle it I’ll take your advice and just throw myself into the story.